<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Moon With Its Craters by liketreesinnovember</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27678500">The Moon With Its Craters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/liketreesinnovember/pseuds/liketreesinnovember'>liketreesinnovember</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Chronic Pain, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Healing, Medicinal Drug Use, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Scars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:40:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>615</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27678500</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/liketreesinnovember/pseuds/liketreesinnovember</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's okay, just relax."</p><p>Zuko was trying to relax. He'd even drunk the whole cup of the taima tea Uncle had blended special, which helped with the tingling and aches in the left side of his face and made him feel a little sleepy, but every time Katara got close to touching his face he jerked away without meaning to.</p><p>"I know it's uncomfortable," Katara said, "but we need to keep it moisturized. It'll feel better, I promise."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Katara/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>111</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Moon With Its Craters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>"It's okay, just relax."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko was trying to relax. He'd even drunk the whole cup of the </span>
  <em>
    <span>taima</span>
  </em>
  <span> tea Uncle had blended special, which helped with the tingling and aches in the left side of his face and made him feel a little sleepy, but every time Katara got close to touching his face he jerked away without meaning to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I know it's uncomfortable," Katara said, "but we need to keep it moisturized. It'll feel better, I promise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Here, lay down," she pushed him gently against the pillows, and Zuko let her. He did feel relaxed and a bit loopy, but when he thought of Katara touching his scar his muscles still seemed to clench up on their own. He felt guilty for not trusting her enough, and stupid that his stupid body wouldn't listen to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It's okay," she said again, as if she could hear his thoughts. She took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently, brushing her thumb over the back of his palm. Zuko felt himself sinking pleasantly into the pillows, and let himself drift. When he felt a hand settle in his hair, he fought the urge to pull away again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Sh, sh," she soothed. Her fingers didn't touch the scar, just played in his hair. He felt her fingertips brush his hairline, his forehead, then ghosting down over the unblemished right side of his face, gently cupping his chin. Then lightly tracing the area around the scar. She didn't have the lotion, all she was doing was touching him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now her fingers lightly brushed the scarred flesh under his eye. The sensation was always strange, the soft feel of her touch becoming a dull, light pressure. He imagined what she was feeling, the rough, pitted flesh, reddened and ugly. When he tensed up, her other hand tightened around his, just a little, and he reminded himself to relax.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a little while, she took both of her hands away and he opened his eyes (he hadn't realized he had closed them) and watched her slather the lotion on her fingertips. She rubbed her hands together a bit to warm them, then cupped his chin in one hand again, holding his head at an angle while she rubbed the lotion into the scar with the other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She'd done this hundreds of times, and each time he felt like a complete baby, pulling away like a frightened squirrel-rabbit. It wasn't as if she'd never touched his scar before, but he always hated this. It reminded him of the early days, when it was Uncle doing it. It didn't <em>hurt</em>like it had back then, when he was half-concious with the pain of it, but his body still remembered. Sometimes when the aches came with the rains he wasn't sure what was real and what was just memory.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He did feel much more relaxed now, though, and Katara's hands holding him steady were oddly reassuring. He realized he had shut his eyes again, clenched them, and he forced them to relax, but kept them shut. He could feel the touch of Katara's fingers on the scarred part of his face as if from far away. It felt like she was touching him through a thick blanket, but the pain had faded and his nerves had finally calmed. Her fingers delicately massaged the lotion into his skin, and a nice cooling feeling spread across the tightened flesh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He barely registered when she was done, as he was half asleep by the time he felt the weight of her settling down next to him on the bed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Easy, huh?" she said softly in his ear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Mmm," was all he could manage in reply.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>